Before and during the American Civil War revolvers were percussion cap and ball. That meant that each cylinder was loaded with loose powder and a bullet. Each chamber of the cylinder had a nipple which held a percussion cap, a small metal cap holding a bit of explosive chemical. When the hammer struck a percussion cap a spark was driven into chamber which ignited the gunpowder and discharged the pistol.

After the Civil War the cap and ball revolver had become obsolete. The new Colt Model 1873 Single Action Army “Peacemaker” fired self contained cartridges which held the bullet, gunpowder, and cap (primer) in a metallic casing. They were faster to load and more reliable. The problem was that many who had cap and ball revolvers didn’t want to give up their old pistols for a Colt Peacemaker. Some had carried their Colt percussion revolver since the 1850’s, or carried them through their service in the Civil War. Other didn’t want to pay the money for a brand new pistol.

The most popular compromise was to convert cap and ball pistols into a pistol that could chamber and fire self contained cartridges. This was actually very simple and cheap. Above is a Colt Model 1851 in its original cap and ball condition. Below is a Colt Model 1851 which has been converted to fire metallic cartridges. Notice the differences. The nipples on the cylinder have been removed, leaving open chambers, or the cylinder itself may have been replaced. A loading port has been added on the right hand side so that the user can load metallic cartridges into the chamber. On the original cap and ball, the revolver has a loading device (loading lever); when the powder and bullet was loaded in a chamber, this device was worked by pulling the lever towards yourself, which would work a ramrod that crimped the crimped the bullet and powder down in place. On the conversion this had been removed and replaced with an ejector rod which ejected from the cylinder empty cartridge casings. A firing pin may have also been attached to the hammer.

How do the Swiss make a sniper rifle? Carefully. Very carefully! – Silvercore Firearms Training BC

As you might guess from my watch & clockmaking youth, I admire the Swiss. I especially admire the way their commitment to self-preservation scared off the Nazi war machine when everyone around them was being invaded. What was their secret? Accurate rifles and soldiers who knew how to use them!

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Ahh, the Swiss. Aside from chocolate and fine timepieces (two things of which I’m fond), they’re known for producing quality firearms. The SIG P210, for instance, is a gloriously precise pistol, finely fitted (in stark contrast with the offspring of their unholy alliance with the German firm of Sauer & Sohn, which are crude devices in comparison.) Do I need to mention that it is superbly accurate as well? Didn’t think so.

If one were to nominate a rifle to compliment the P210, it would likely be the Karabiner Model 1931 — often referred to in short by the nomenclature “K31”. Chambered in the often overlooked 7.5×55 Swiss cartridge, the K31 features a beautifully machined straight-pull bolt. The gun is nicely constructed and fitted, surprisingly so for a military arm issued to rank-and-file troops. (The rifle is often erroneously referred to as a Schmidt-Rubin, which is not correct. Schmidt designed the action of the Swiss army’s first straight-pull rifles, but the K31 is a completely different design. Rubin’s name could be fairly associated with the rifle, for he was the designer behind the cartridge.)

The K31 rifle operates like, well, a Swiss watch: everything slides into place smoothly and predictably, with a reassuring sound of quality. Operating the bolt on a K31 is very much like closing the cylinder on a Colt Python: there is just something so right about it!

I shouldn’t need to say that the K31 is a superbly accurate rifle, but I will. In any other country the gun would have been considered a marksman’s rifle in its stock form, but for the Swiss snipers it wasn’t good enough. From the K31 action Eidgenossische Waffenfabrik developed the ZfK-55 sniper rifle, adding a scope, muzzle brake, pistol grip, and a much heavier barrel for enhanced accuracy.

They didn’t stop there, however. The Swiss military wanted to maintain full functionality of the rifle but, with a scope being needed for precision shooting, there was a tiny little problem: the scope covered the port in which the stripper clips were placed for loading the magazine. Now they could have simply offset the scope (like we did on our Garands), but that introduces windage corrections and cheek weld problems. Can you imagine what that would do to someone with OCD? Well, that’s what it did in Bern.

The solution was typically Swiss: they’d modify the entire rifle, rotating the action 15 degrees to clear the stripper clip guide from the scope. This meant that they could have a center-mounted scope and still use their stripper clips. All they needed to do was spend the money to do it, which they did. I can’t imagine what it cost to build these very limited production rifles!

Today ZfK-55 rifles are very collectible and naturally rare. Since they’re not really based on any existing rifle (even the K31 action is heavily modified for the role) fakes are unheard of, so if you want one you have to pony up.

Originally, all revolvers were single action, especially the Colt revolver. This meant that the user had to cock the hammer before firing. Then came the double action, invented by the Adams Company of England. With a double action the force of pulling the trigger cocks the hammer and rotates the cylinder in one motion. The downside is that a double action has a stronger trigger pull than a single action.

During the American Civil War, a company called Mershon and Hollingsworth sought to solve this problem by inventing what is essentially an automatic revolver. The MH design featured a regular Colt Model 1860 revolver, only MH added a large clockwork spring which connected the hammer and trigger mechanism. The user would wind up the spring beforehand and would cock the hammer on the first shot. After the first shot, the spring would release and then rewind, the motion of which would cock the hammer and rotate the cylinder. After each shot the mechanism would repeat, thus ensuring the user need not cock the hammer again or deal with a heavy double action trigger pull. Like the clockwork on a watch, eventually the spring would run out of energy, it isn’t a perpetual motion machine after all. Like a pocket watch, it would have to be rewound for the mechanism to continue working properly.

Unfortunately for MH, the clockwork mechanism of their design was complex, fragile, hard to manufacture, and expensive. A regular single action revolver, or even double action was several times cheaper than MH’s bizarre clockwork revolver.

The Webley-Fosbery Self-Cocking Automatic Revolver was an unusual, recoil-operated, automatic revolver designed by Lieutenant Colonel George Vincent Fosbery, VC and produced by the Webley and Scott company from 1901 to 1915. The firearm is easily recognizable by the zig-zag grooves on the cylinder.

Semi-automatic pistols were just beginning to appear when Colonel Fosbery (1832–1907) devised a revolver that cocked the hammer and rotated the cylinder by sliding the action, cylinder and barrel assembly back on the frame. The prototype was a modified Colt Single Action Army revolver. Fosbery patented his invention 16 August 1895 and further improvements were patented in June and October 1896.

Fosbery took his design to P. Webley & Son of Birmingham. P. Webley & Son, which merged with W.C. Scott & Sons and Richard Ellis & Son in 1897 to form the Webley & Scott Revolver and Arms Co., was the primary manufacturer of service pistols for the British Army as well as producing firearms for civilian use. Webley further developed the design and the Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver was introduced at the matches at Bisley of July 1900.

The revolver was initially made in .455 calibre for the British service cartridge, and later in .38 ACP. While the .455 version had a standard 6-round cylinder, the .38 high velocity (.38 Colt ACP) version had eight chambers and could be loaded by a circular full-moon clip. The .38 version had a shorter cylinder, and thus shorter recoil stroke. Some were made with the short frame in .455 calibre. A variety of modifications led to the production of 6 different models, Marks I through VI.

In civilian use, the Webley-Fosbery was popular with target-shooters. Because the trigger mechanism did not rotate the cylinder, shots were smooth and consistent, permitting rapid and accurate shooting. Walter Winans, a famous contemporary target shooter, preferred the Webley-Fosbery, and in 1902 he used it to place six shots in a two-inch bull’s-eye at 12 paces in seven seconds. Using a Prideaux speedloader he was able to fire twelve shots into a three-inch bull’s-eye in approximately 15 seconds.

Webley-Fosbery was available in several standard configurations with barrel lengths of 7.5 inches, 6 in, and 4 in, and was also made to order. They could also be ordered with Metford (polygonal) rifling. The pistol could also be purchased with a single-shot .22 adapter for competitive target shooting; the cylinder was removed and it was inserted into the barrel.

The Webley-Fosbery is a recoil-operated revolver. It has three functional sections: the barrel and cylinder section, the lock and hammer action, and the frame which houses the trigger, recoil spring, grip, and safety.

The process of opening, emptying, and loading the Webley-Fosbery is identical to all other contemporary Webley revolvers. A pivoting lever on the side of the upper receiver is pressed to release the cylinder-barrel section, which tilts up and forward (“breaks”) on a bottom-front pivot, simultaneously ejecting the contents of the cylinder chambers. Once loaded the section is tilted back to lock closed.

Once loaded the Webley-Fosbery is cocked by pressing the entire action-cylinder-barrel assembly as far back as it will go, using the free hand. An internal spring then brings the assembly to ready position.

When the action-cylinder-barrel assembly moves back, either by hand-cocking or recoil, a pivoting lever connected to the frame cocks the hammer while a stud on the frame rides in the zig-zag grooves on the outer cylinder, revolving the next chamber part-way to ready position. When the internal spring brings the assembly forward the stud revolves the cylinder completely, and the chamber lines up with the barrel. Neither pulling the trigger nor manually cocking the hammer alone rotates the gun’s cylinder; the entire assembly must be cocked to ensure that a chamber is properly lined up with the barrel.

The Webley-Fosbery is intended to be carried at full cock, ready to fire. The revolver therefore has the unusual feature of a safety catch, which is found on the left side of the frame at the top of the grip. When disengaged the safety lies horizontally along the frame; it is set by pressing it down, disconnecting the hammer from the sear. It can only be set when the pistol is cocked.

In early models, one-directional cylinder rotation was ensured by using a spring-loaded operating stud which rode cylinder grooves of varying depths. This design was found to be needlessly complex and in the later models a fixed stud rode grooves of a uniform depth, with overshoot grooves set at the angle of the zig-zag to prevent the stud from permitting the cylinder to turn backwards.

Additional improvements included removing the cylinder retaining latch from the side of the action. The latch was replaced with a spring-loaded stud in the cylinder’s top strap.

The final version of the Webley-Fosbery was released in 1914. It had a shorter cylinder than on earlier models and the trigger spring and recoil lever were strengthened.